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Winner of Lu Xun Literary Prize, Bi Feiyu's novel THE PLAIN received a great deal of attention from readers and critics since being published in China in 2005. After two years of absence the young man Duan Fang returns to Wang village. We follow him through the seasons as he rediscovers life in the fields, his passionate love for a young girl meant for someone else, his struggle to escape a destiny all mapped out. With a host of colourful characters – the barefoot doctor, Old Harpn haunting the ghost of the rich man whose house he occupies, Mr Gu who interprets the world in terms of Marx and beautiful Manling, a young teacher sent to re-educate herself amongst the peasants.
Jiangsu Literature & Art Publishing House China
Editions Philippe Picquier France
Material: Chinese and French editions (476pp in French).
This vivid novel, where tragedy often adopts the mantle of farce, is about power and the desire to dominate others. Even in the village of the Wang family, where life is attuned to the rhythm of work in the fields and the slogans of the Cultural Revolution, no one is prepared to be just a wave in the ‘infinite ocean of people’. If Bi Feiyu often makes fun of the pitiable spinelessness of people, he devotes himself with an almost loving attention to the characters of three women. Three sisters make every effort to change the course of their destinies. Yumi uses her dignity, Yuxiu her seductive powers, and Yuyang her desire for success.
'A valuable document to aid our understanding of daily life as it carried on in a recent time of terror.' Le Temps
‘With relevance and sensitivity, Bi Feiyu depicts these strong, passionate figures, who strive with determination to retain a certain power over their world and their own bodies' Axelle
'With a mercilessly satirical eye, Bi observes
domestic and communal life in late 20th-century China as three of the
seven daughters of Wang Lianfang strive for identity and self-respect...Bi describes with a sober bluntness the coarse brutality and
familial and community power jockeying that plays out in villages where
life is governed by strict rituals, superstition, and folk beliefs. Drawn with dispassionate candor, this is a bleak tale of human miseries
and of women struggling to survive in a culture that devalues them.'
Publisher’s Weekly, August 2009
'One of China's best contemporary novelists, Bi Feiyu has created an
insightful portrait of China during the past half a century with a tale
both epic and intimate. Three Sisters is an important novel.' Yiyun
Li, author of A Thousand Years of Good Prayers and The Vagrants
'A thrilling family epic that depicts China's dispossessed longings and
love.' Xiaolu Guo, author of A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary
for Lovers
'Bi Feiyu delivers a moving tale of three sisters struggling to take
control of their lives... Their
heroic endurance of petty cruelties and unfair obstacles feels universal
for the time and place, yet Bi brilliantly traces this widespread
societal pain back to its source, deep in human nature - then shows how
it is passed from one individual life to another. A profound,
illuminating novel.' Nicole Mones, author of The Last Chinese Chef and Lost in Translation
‘Bi Feiyu has crafted a macabre yet empathetic tapestry out of the lives of three sisters amidst the yzantine webs of revolutionary sexism during the Cultural Revolution. He leads us through China’s equivalents of the scarlet letter, reminding us that the legacy of women as second place remains an unacknowledged undertow, and giving the reader compelling insights within a spell-binding tale of love and hatred, defeat and victory, resignation and redemption.’
William Poy Lee, author of The Eighth Promise
Editions Philippe Picquier France
Saqi Books UK
Harcourt Brace USA
Munhakdongne Korea
Verdecielo Spain
Jiangsu Literature & Art Publishing House China
Material: Chinese, French and Spanish Editions; complete English translation (approx 300pp).
NOMINATED FOR THE INDEPENDENT FOREIGN FICTION PRIZE 2008
‘This tiny, perfect novel concerns the hermetic world of traditional Peking Opera. Xiao Yanqi, exquisite star of a cursed piece called The Moon Opera, ruins her career by throwing boiling water in the face of her understudy. Twenty years later, a cigarette factory owner pays for the return of his idol. The Moon Goddess tips Xiaou into crazed mourning for her lost youth.’ The Times
‘Bi Feiyu’s eye for the cinematic is evident on the page. In one beautifully unnerving scene, an intoxicated Yanqiu, desperate to be back on stage, dances alone in her kitchen, breaking bottles of oil and soy sauce. The singer’s battle against her aging body is linked with the story of the Opera’s struggle to survive in the 21st century, and it is one of the most affecting themes in the novel.’ San Francisco Chronicle
Editions Philippe Picquier France
Zuojia Chubanshe China
Karl Blessing Verlag Germany
De Geus Holland
Saqi Books UK
Harcourt Brace USA
Munhakdongne Korea
Verdecielo Spain
German radio dramatisation rights sold to WDR
Jiangsu Literature & Art Publishing House China
Material: Chinese, English edition (126pp); French, German and many other editions.
SHANGHAI TRIAD
It’s the 1930s and young Tang, known as ‘Bad Egg’, a naive adolescent, leaves the countryside for Shanghai. Welcomed by his uncle who introduces him to the world of the mafia, his role is to serve Jewell, the chief of the Head of the Tiger gang’s mistress. It is Jewell, artist, singer, dancer of the hot Shanghai nights, proud, capricious, arrogant, who teaches him how to live, in a world of luxury, with its hierachies, priviledges and above all its rules: another world where money, jealously and betrayal rule, as much as the lust for power. Before his child’s eyes, successful dramas play out in which ambitions and passions collide. Where everyone has to play their part. This brilliant novel of Bi Feiyu’s was adapted for screen, into an already iconic and visually stunning film, in 1995 by Zhang Yimou, under the title SHANGHAI TRIAD with Gong Li in the role of Jewell (available on DVD).
Jiangsu Literature and Art Publishing House China
Editions Philippe Picquier France
Material: Chinese and French finished copies.